1. Technical Field
The embodiments disclosed herein are related to networks and network devices.
2. Related Art
Networking systems are commonly used to move network information (which may also be referred to interchangeably, as frames, packets or commands) between computing systems (for example, servers) or between computing systems and network devices (for example, storage systems). Various hardware and software components are used to implement network communication.
The network switch is typically a multi-port device where each port manages a point-to-point connection between itself and an attached system. Each port can be attached to a server, peripheral, input/output subsystem, bridge, hub, router, or another switch, where each of the aforementioned network devices also has one or more ports. The term network switch as used herein includes a Multi-Level switch that uses plural switching elements within a single switch chassis to route data packets. Different network and storage protocols may be used to handle network information and storage information.
Routing methods for different protocols are typically different. For example, Ethernet uses content addressable memory driven routing while Fibre Channel uses table based routing. Continuous efforts are being made to enhance the use of networking and storage protocols and efficient routing techniques for different protocols.